WW1 Revision Cards

Question 1

What were the estimated casualties from the Battle of the Somme in 1916?

Answer 1

Over a million on all sides.

Question 2

What were the estimated casualties from the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917?

Answer 2

487.000 on all sides.

Question 3

What was the Western front of fighting?

Answer 3

The fighting that took place on the French and Belgian border between German and French/British troops.

Question 4

Why were the tactics of Trench Warfare used on the Western Front?

Answer 4

Armies were strong and it would take a long side for any side to break the other down.

Question 5

What were the fire trenches?

Answer 5

The fighting positions.

Question 6

What were communication trenches?

Answer 6

Trenches that connected the frontline trenches to the support and reserve trenches.

Question 7

Why were trenches dug in an angular formation and not straight lines?

Answer 7

The design meant a bomb or an enemy entering a section of the trench would affect only that section, not the whole trench line.

Question 8

What was the typical depth of a trench?

Answer 8

6-8ft

Question 9

Why did trenches sometimes have to be built up above ground?

Answer 9

Water could easily leak in in some places more easily than others.

Question 10

How big was the British army at the start of WW1?

Answer 10

How big was the British army at the start of WW1?

Question 11

What was Lord Kitchener able to persuade the government to do once it became clear WW1 would be fought using trench warfare?

Answer 11

Expand the army to 500,000 men.

Question 12

How close did the British government get to meeting the target of expanding the army to 500,000 men?

Answer 12

The target was smashed. By the end of 1915, 2,466,719 men had volunteered to join the “new armies” known as “Kitchener’s Armies”.

Question 13

What were the quality of the new recruits?

Answer 13

i. Some were very good.
ii. Some were younger than they should have been (at least 18).
iii. Some passed a medical examination when they really should have failed it.

Question 14

What was the Military Service Act (law) of 1916?

Answer 14

It introduced conscription (forced service) in Britain.

Question 15

What were conscientious objectors?

Answer 15

Men who who refused conscription on moral or ethical grounds (they disagreed with the war).

Question 16

What jobs did soldiers in the Army Service Corps have?

Answer 16

Non-combat. He either worked in a factory close to the French coast or had to travel to the frontline avoiding the heavy German guns to deliver supplies or bring back wounded soldiers.

Question 17

What jobs did soldiers in the Army Ordnance Corps have?

Answer 17

Non-combat. They had to deal with supply and storage of weaponry. They had to provide maintenance both behind and in front of the frontline. They were often in harm’s way.

Question 18

What jobs did soldiers in the Royal Artillery Gunners have?

Answer 18

They had to operate mortars that would fire heavy shells from the very back of the trench formation.

Question 19

What jobs did Signallers have?

Answer 19

They had to lay field telephone cables across shell-ploughed battlefields.

Question 20

What jobs did the infantry have?

Answer 20

They had to try and secure the enemy’s trenches.

Question 21

What were the jobs of Special Companies?

Answer 21

To conduct poison gas attacks.

Question 22

What jobs did sappers have?

Answer 22

To tunnel out into no-man’s land and plant mines.

Question 23

What was the jobs of the RAMC?

Answer 23

They were medical workers within the army.

Question 24

What was the job of the FANY?

Answer 24

They were nurses. At first, the British would not let them tend to soldiers but gradually they took over jobs such as driving ambulances.